America Rocked by Political Extremes’ Lack of Heart-Mind Balance

I don’t know how else to put it. America’s escalating conflicts between the political extremes are the direct result of a lack of heart-mind balance. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s killing us.

Let me explain.

You know the political left and right don’t see eye-to-eye on much of anything. This much is a given. The two sides absolutely hate each other, and diametrically oppose any and all the other values or wants to do.

This is best seen in the Project Veritas videos during the 2016 election when James O’Keefe’s undercover recordings revealed Democrat consultant Scott Foval’s efforts to rig the election for Hillary Clinton. In case you forgot, here’s a link to their compilation video. Listen to how he talks about Republicans.

So why does their conflict have anything to do with a heart-mind balance?

What is Heart-Mind Balance?

I see things in energetic terms, that our bodies are chemical factories enervated by a flow of energy which travels along certain defined pathways, or meridians. This is the core principle behind Chinese medicine, which treats the imbalance in this flow of energy (qi) through the use of food, herbs and acupuncture to remove blockages and restore balance to the different organ systems that are nourished by the qi.

In my distorted view of reality, this flow of energy is not limited to our individual bodies.

Energy flows through our world in various ways. One of the easiest to understand (yet hardest to measure or quantify) is the flow of thought and emotions.

Like all electromagnetic fields, thought and emotional energy fields flow between polar opposites like invisible magnets. As our thoughts become more and more polarized (whether those energies are considered “positive” or “negative”), we are pulled closer and closer to one of the poles.

As we grow closer to the side toward which we naturally gravitate, our energies become less and less influenced by the pull of the opposing pole, causing us to become more and more entrenched in our own existing beliefs and unable to interact with, much less consider or adopt, those views which resonate with the opposing side.

In short, we become locked in our polarity, rendering us incapable of compromise because we are unable to coexist with the intense energies of opposing viewpoints.

Superimpose upon this the fact that the energies WITHIN different people are polarized as well, and can best be seen in the interaction of heart and mind in our daily affairs. In this case, heart and mind can be thought of like two oppositely-charged poles between which we’re pulled.

For the energies of heart and mind are often at odds with each other, even within us. The energies of mind are associated with reason and consciousness. The energies of heart are seen more as emotions or feelings. One set of energies controls how we see the world around us; the other controls how we relate to and feel about it.

The polarized energies of the extremes are at work within their interaction as well. For if one is more centered in their heart, they will focus on issues like safe spaces, social justice and feelings of fairness. Here we can think of the anti-Trump protestors that are called snowflakes

According to Wikipedia,

Snowflake is a term used to characterize people who became adults in the 2010s as being more prone to taking offence and less resilient than previous generations, or too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own. It is considered derogatory.

They are, at their essence, more concerned about the needs of people and the impact upon the individual, than they are of its impact on society, or as we’ve seen recently, upon basic personal freedoms.

Those who are centered in their minds, however, tend not to be as influenced by such emotional energies (or energies of the heart). Instead, they base their positions upon reason and the rule of law, and take positions designed to consider the needs of the whole over those of the individual, so long as personal liberties reserved under the Constitution are preserved.

Those on the Left whose primarily personal polarity gravitates toward the emotional side see the Right as cold and calculating, uncaring about the impact of their policies upon those who are adversely impacted (e.g., the brouhaha now waging over undocumented immigrants).

On the other hand, those on the Right see the Left as overly emotional and unable to deal with the realities of modern society. The radical Left’s dystopic views of society and social justice have set them off on a campaign to turn our nation into something totally unrecognizable from the principles on which it was founded and the laws upon which it operates.

Of course, we’re all caught in the middle, left to sort out the truth from the lies, half-truths and venom they spew at each other, all to curry our favor and support for their side.

Yet somehow we have to pick up the pieces of what remains and find our collective way to a better tomorrow.

America Needs to Find its Balance

Just like we each do individually, our nation struggles when the energies swing too strongly in one direction or the other. Sometimes that results in dramatic action and transformative change. At others it puts us in chaos as the political extremes do battle.

Right now, it seems we’re getting a little bit of both. The Left is outraged at a Trump Administration methodically carrying out the promises of his campaign, while the Right celebrates a return to principles of law they thought were ignored under Obama, as well as his other efforts to deconstruct the administrative state.

As citizens, we don’t have to take sides and put more energy into keeping the extremes apart. We can find a point of balance between them where we and they together can co-exist, or at least not destroy each other in the name of serving our nation.

That point of balance seems to be somewhat more conservative turn than the Left would hope. For our country is moving right to adjust course from the Obama years. Almost any move would be. I tend to think of it as restoring the natural balance, since we’ve been called a center-right nation for a long time, and center right is where we’re going to go.

But it’s not going to be this hard right turn that the snowflakes fear. Their liberties will not be curtailed. They will not be imprisoned or deported, unless they’re undocumented aliens.

For while each side may try to pull us toward one side or the other, those efforts are moderated by the silent majority whose collective energies are more balanced, and who want the benefits of both heart and mind as we go forward together.

If we want America to succeed and move forward without all the rancor and conflict, those in the center must take care not to be swayed too greatly by one side or the other.

Certainly participation in such a bipolar environment like our political system requires we choose sides. But even when we do, we each must do our part to balance the energies within us so that we become less susceptible to the disturbances that ripple through our society from their conflicts.

In the end, though, this too shall pass. And we’re all going to have to live together once it is.

So as you watch the war of extremes, beware of being dragged too deeply into the whirlpools swirling at either pole. Do your best to find your balance and stay there, where heart and mind work together for the good of all.